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Step 1

Write “build” on the board and ask your students the following questions:

What can you build?

Give some examples such as: a house and a flat. Put them in pairs and ask them to come up with as many things as they can in 3 minutes. Get feedback from the whole class.

Step 2

Write up “build a world”. Ask your students to imagine that they could build their own perfect world. Give them time to think about what their world would be like. Tell them they should include buildings, streets, plants, light and colours. Ask them to work on their own and give them 10 minutes to write down what their worlds would be like. They should start with:

My perfect world would …

Help them with any vocabulary they need.

Step 3

Put students into pairs and ask them put to explain their world to their partner. Each student should close their eyes as they listen to their partner’s description and try to visualise their world. Get feedback from the whole class.

Step 4

Tell your students that they are going to watch a short film in which a young man builds a world. Ask them to watch the film and compare the young man’s world with the worlds they built. Show the film and pause at 07:12. Ask students the following questions:

Put your students into pairs and ask them to discuss what they think is going to happen next. Get feedback from the whole class.

Step 6

Show the rest of the film and ask students the following questions:

Were your predictions correct?

What’s happened to the young woman?

Homework

Students should write a composition which starts:

If I could build my own perfect world, it would …

I hope you enjoy this English language lesson.

Support Film English

Film English remains ad-free and takes many hours a month to research and write, and hundreds of dollars to sustain. If you find any joy or value in it, please consider supporting Film English with a monthly subscription, or by contributing a one-off payment.

Hi. I have just found this website and it is amazing – thank you for all your hard work!
One quick question though – the downloadable instructions for the world builder lesson are slightly different from the instructions on the blog, as they mention giving the students the narrative from the film, which has 8 mistakes in it. But there is no link to this resource? I can presumably make it myself… but if you have already made it I would be extremely grateful if I could have a copy!
Many thanks!

Just used this lesson (and a few others) as part of a training course for English teachers in Perm, Russia. They loved it and two of them very successfully used ‘paper is not dead’ in their micro-teach yesterday. You have created one of the most user-friendly sites for teachers that I’ve ever come across and I will certainly share it on the other courses I’m running this year.

Hi Kieran,
Just a few words to than you for your work on this site. I´ve found it to be most helpful. I give in-company English classes in Madrid and my (adult) students have enjoyed the short films very much.
Keep up the good work!

Buy Kieran’s Film methodology Book

Please consider buying my methodology book Film In Action to help keep Film English a non-paying site.

Support Film English

Film English remains ad-free and takes many hours a month to research and write, and hundreds of dollars to sustain. If you find any joy or value in it, please consider supporting Film English with a monthly subscription, or by contributing a one-off payment.

Monthly subscription

One-off payment

Buy Kieran’s How To Write Film Activities Book

If you enjoy Film English you might like to buy Kieran's book on how to write activities for film and video co-authored with Anna Whitcher. It's a great way to support Film English and keep all the activities free.